Might I solicit some more advice on entering the IT field?

[Riflema]

Bravo! Let's hear it for Excel, very much the Rodney Dangerfield of applications. In my 30-odd years of earning a living as essentially a desktop developer, that has been my entree to all sorts of interesting assignments. IT departments loathe it, which is also something of a recommendation in my eyes.

Essentially your list describes me and my experiences to date - avoid dropping into any pigeon holes in IT itself, make yourself very useful to the people on the sharp end of whatever business you find yourself in. The tools you list make up a superb toolkit for that.

[killermosquito]

Your comment, “IT departments loath it” is very true of Excel. The seem to prefer out-of-the-box solutions. I’ve solved a few problems here that IT said couldn’t be done and I did them with Excel macros.

Right now I’m nearing completion on a project. A friend here at the company said to me that if I can figure this out I should quit and sell the solution to them for a million dollars.